Newspaper Page Text
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THE RED AND BLACK
VOLUME K4. NUMBER MI
rrn 24 1970
LIBRARIES
Georgia's only collegiate daily newspaper
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA. ATHENS, GEORGIA :MM>02
FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 24, 197*
Eugene Patterson speaks during Georgia Press Institute
PRESS INSTITUTE ON CAMPUS
Print medium faces problems
li\ K VrilKRYN HAVES
\ssistiinl campus editor
Hostility to the* print medium and
criticism ol the ethics of newspaper
people concerning invasion of privacy are
major problems facing newspapers
today, the president of the American
Society of Newspaper Editors told a
group of journalists here yesterday.
"We have to contend with a growing
hostility to the print medium as opposed
to television news.” Eugene Patterson,
society president and editor and
president of The St. Petersburg Times,
told the Georgia Press Institute at the
University's Georgia Center for
Continuing Education
"When Walter Cronkite says someone
died, he looks sorry. When you see it in
print, it’s just cold type.” he said.
"Also, television newsmen are indi
viduals. The public tends to think of
newspapers as institutions.” Patterson
said He added that television is a warm
medium while people think of news
papers as cold and uncaring.
Patterson, a former editor of The
Atlanta C onstitution and a 1943 graduate
ol the Henry W Grady School of
Journalism and Mass Communications,
addressed the 50th Georgia Press
Institute as the keynote speaker
The institute began yesterday and will
continue through Saturday.
Patterson said he has worked in
various seminars discussing the ethics of
newspaper people and feels the invasion
of privacy charge as an alternative suit
to libel threatens free journalism
The editor discussed two stories he
decid**d not to print because they would
have damaged a person's reputation
without providing any new understanding
of the person's character.
One example was what Patterson
called an attempt by the FBI to smear
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr "An FBI
agent came to me with information
involving the private life of King, saying
King was immoral because he likes
girls.” he said
The FBI agent gave Patterson details
about an alleged affair between the civil
rights leader and an unnamed woman
Patterson said whether or not the story
was true it had no affect on King's
performance as a public figure, and he
refused to print it.
The story was printed after King’s
death
"At that time I felt it was in the public
interest to urint the storv. not to smear
King but the readers know what the
FBI tried to do.” Patterson said
"Our critics never consider the tough
decisions we 'journalists) make every
day.” Patterson said.
Patterson said he was approached by a
Tampa woman who had "a series of
spicy letters” from G. Gordon Liddy.
then serving time in prison for his
involvement in the Watergate scandal
Patterson had a reporter write a story
on the letters "It was a beautiful story:
you would be very interested to read it,”
he said "But it shed no new light on
Liddy's character."
I killed the story.” he said
Liddy. associated with the Nixon
Administration, as an aide to John
Erlichman and as a member of Nixon’s
Committee to Reelect the President, was
one of the first Watergate figures to be
indicted.
Patterson expressed concern about a
loss of interest in printed news "We need
to start looking at the content of our news
and editorials We need to look at the
issues that seem to be boring to the
readers.” he said.
Newspaper writing is pretty bad.” he
said Patterson has hired an English
professor to work with reporters at The
St. Petersburg Times to correct writing
problems
"We are under a challenge to improve
the way in which we present the news,”
Patterson said.
Allocations compromise
rejected by the senate
liv BILL Kill EGER
and MIKE WRIGHT
The Student Senate decided not to
•y accept responsibility for allocating
. m money to small clubs and organizations
(Area four i Wednesday night by a vote of
M 17 to 16
Dwight Douglas. Dean of Student
Services, offered the senate the
I responsibility of allocating students
activities money to Area four, which
Consists of Student Government, athletic
clubs, and other small clubs, according to
* Ben Walter Muller (A&S>
The senate allocations committee had
the responsibility for all of the allocations
process until last spring quarter whan
tt Douglas formed a committee to take over
allocations The senate retained respon
sibility for Area four until later that
quarter when Douglas’ committee took
j responsibility for it also.
Douglas action followed the previous
years' allocation process during which
the senate cut student salaries and
Budgets for some campus organizations.
Douglas intervened that year to restore,
in part, some of those funds which were
cut
Douglas offered committee positions to
some senators then but they refused,
stating they did not wish to become
puppets
*1 am in favor of taking Area four now
so that we can show good faith and prove
our responsibility to the administration."
Key said. "1 don’t think that we should
take Area four with no guarantee, or
even a hint, from Dean Douglas that we
will get the responsibility for Area two
t (allocations for large campus organi-
zations. such as the Union).” Muller said
I “1 think we need to put our pride aside
and get our feet in the door, and take
Area four.’’ Sen Tim Lewis (Agri
culture) said. "He (Dean Douglas)
doesn’t give a damn it we do it or not.”
Sen Chris Gamer (Journalism) said.
"Dean Douglas has said that Area two
is not negotiable. Area four is not worth
taking if it is under Douglas’ conditions.”
Muller said "If we were to take Area
four we would just be allocating our own
money, since SGA takes up most of"the
budget in Area four." Grant Raeside,
administrative vice president, said.
"What we should do now is keep
negotiations going with the adminis
tration We will also continue to work on
the survey concerning allocations.”
Raeside said
There will be a referendum Pel). 28 on
three amendments to the Student
Government constitution. One amend
ment would change the constitution so
there will In* a president and a vice
president instead of a president and two
vice presidents, as it now stands.
Another amendment would change the
constitution so the president could choose
a representative to the elections
committee. The president shall also
organize the cabinet and preside at
cabinet meetings. The third amendment
will eliminate the requirement the
president and vice president of the senate
must serve a full term before they can
take office.
It is necessary to get these motions
out for a vote on Tuesday because
Wednesday petitions will go out for
students interested in running for student
government offices. This way we will
know whether there will In* one or two
vice presidents,” Sen Glen Vey (A&S),
governance committee chairman, said
A motion to make the vice president
president of the senate was defeated. A
motion to change the representation of
the senate by cutting it to one senator for
every 6»hi students was also defeated
There is one senator for every 400
students now.
Mall construction dates announced
By MIKE ROBERTS
Assistant city editor
Const ruction of the proposed
Georgia Square shopping mall is
scheduled to begin in October 1978
with a completion date set for fall
1980. officials of the Arlen Shopping
Centers Company announced
Thursday
The mall will in* located adjacent to
the intersection of Highway 29 and
Huntington Hoad, two miles west of
Athens and near the Athens Bypass.
Marc Greenberg,of the Chattanooga.
Tenn . based Arlen Company, said
approximately "2500 full-time cm
ployees” will be needed to operate the
mail's lour major department stores
and 108 smaller shops
Ol the 2500 persons. Greenberg said
70*75 percent would be new employees
and the remainder transplanted from
other Athens businesses.
Downtown Athens could he hurt in
terms of patronage, too. Greenberg
said the downtown shopping area
might experience "somewhat of a
slump when we open ”
Despite such a possible had effect on
city businesses, an Athens-Clarke
County Chamber ol Commerce spokes
man said he had faith that the
shopping center would Ik* good for the
community.”
Joe Burnett, director of the
Downtown Development Authority
said he had not previously known of
the mall construction plans and
couldn't comment on the effect it will
have on downtown business.
"There’s no way I could speculate.”
he said
Greenberg attempted to calm local
merchant’s fears alx»ut the possible
loss of customers "We re not coming
to town to bring in outside merchants
to put local merchants out of
business,” he said
Mentioning Arlen’s experience in
shopping center development, dating
to 1970. Green!>erg said "a center such
as ours will usually enhance the
downtown area ”
In the same vein. Greenberg pointed
out to his luncheon audience of Athens
civic leaders, including Mayor
Upshaw Bentley and several city
councilmen, the shopping center would
keep consumer dollars in the county
Greenberg also stressed other good
points of the proposed mall Georgia
Square would lie "the largest and
finest 'mail* in the Southeast." he
said lie added, "we plan to make
Athens a retail center.’
With a possible eye toward ecology,
Greenberg said as far as landscaping
was concerned, "we plan to blend into
the area.”
Arlen spokesman Darryl Kaplan
said, "we plan to have a variety of
stores to accommodate family out
ings.”
But the mall is still in the planning
stages Arlen spokesman John Martin
said Arlen has purchased the site, but
other details have yet to lx* completed
Martin said none of the required
building permits and licenses have
lH*en obtained but that ail necessary
preparations have been made to
obtain them.
An artist’s rendering shows what the new mall should look like
1
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.4
University graduate Oscar award nominee
King Tut documentary puts journalism
school graduate into the big leagues
By El) GRISAMORE
Feature editor
A former University graduate student
has been nominated for an Academy
Award by the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills. Calif.
James R Messenger, a 1970 graduate
of the journalism school, has been
nominated for his 30-minute documentary
film Of l ime. Tombs and Treasure The
film features the treasures of King
Tutankhamun and the Tut exhibit that
travelled across the country this year
The film is entered in the category for
best achievement in a short subject
documentary. Messenger wrote and
directed the film
a “I’m so excited that I'm bouncing off
the wells up here." Messenger, who is
now with a filmmaking firm in
Washington. DC., said Thursday "It's
hard to explain how I feel It’s a
combination of severe shock and
fantastk surprise.”
MESSENGER. WHO taught film
classics at the University in 1975. said it
was an "incredible” honor to be
recognized by his filmakmg peers as
having created one of the five best short
documentaries of the year
The lilms. which was aired on WGTV.
Channel 8. on Jan. 20. examines the
pricesless artifacts of the Tut exhibit and
takes an even closer look at the
civilization that created them
When he died in 1325 B.C . King Tut
was buried with his wordlv treasures.
Together, they lay undisturbed for
centuries
The documentary re-enacts the pre
parations made to bury Tut and retraces
the discovery of his tomb in 1922 by a
team of archaeologists
“When I was preparing the film, my
intention was to share my own personal
enthusiasm for a magnificent and highly
sophisticated culture with other people.
Messenger said But the task wasn't
easy. The feel of ancient Egypt
encompasses more than one can convey
in a mere 30 minutes despite the versatile
nature of the motion picture medium ”
MESSENGER SAID it took 11 months
to find a company to finance the film He
finally sold the idea to Exxon Corp who
gave him "complete creative freedom”
in making the film
The film has already won awards in the
International Film and TV Festival of
New York and the Public Relations
Society of America and Virgin Islands
International film festivals
"The film is a united effort.”
Messenger explained "I'm from the
collaborative school of filmmaking It
takes a lot of people with a lot of ideas to
make a motion picture
' When I was teaching at the
University, some of my students were
making better films than I was and that
made me proud.” he said "That’s the
way it should be I run a very open-set
operation and everyone is allowed to
make contiibutions in every situation "
Messenger said “Murphy’s Law truly
applies to making a film "It's a joyous
thing but it's also a matter of solving
many crises If anything bad can happen,
it will ”
“Of Time. Tombs and Treasure” filming in progress
t